Tatted Earrings

This is the second pair of earrings I made. The first ones have already been given away and I didn't take a picture...they were too long for me. I figured out how to load seed beads on regular crochet thread using a needle threader... it worked! Learned a lot from the first pair.

The first pair I used beads that were too large and didn't have the beads loaded correctly on the threads so they didn't turn out like I expected, which is OK... Kathryn loves them! Here is a link to the pattern I used. I didn't follow it exactly, but it is very similar. Snowflake Earring I have all my new tatting blogger friends to thanks for this. They have inspired me to take up my shuttles and tat again.

Stash Report Week 13

Stash Report for week 13:

Fabric bought this week: 0 yards
Fabric used this week: 6.41 yards

Fabric bought YTD: 32 yards
Fabric used YTD: 87.25 yards

Stash busted: I have used 55.25 yards more than I have bought.

I'll be sewing again when I get home from church.

March Quiltathon

Chuck was up at 5 this morning with an upset stomach and stayed home from work so I didn't get as much done as I hoped, but I did finish 2 quilts and a couple of small projects. I had made more 16 patch blocks with the leftover strips from the baby quilt last week. I got one top put together with another 20 blocks left for another quilt.

I finished the binding on the Rail Fence Quilt and the Baby Quilt and that will add to my Stash Busting :)

When Eileen came over last week, she had the pattern for this legal pad cover so I borrowed it and made one.

I have needed a pincushion/trash bag for the long arm for some time. The one I had wouldn't stay on the poles when I was pinning or unpinning. I think this one will stay, I made it so the pincushion drapes over the poles instead of balancing on it.

Pignoli Cookies

I think these cookies are my favorite, even better than chocolate chip. We discovered these cookies in a little bakery right next door to our favorite Italian meat market, Tully's in Albuquerque. To buy them is very expensive! They are $16.00 a pound! That's like $2.00 per cookie. My husband loves these cookies so he found the recipe and I have been making them ever since and they are so easy! You should be able to find the almond paste in cans in any grocery store. Here's the recipe: Pignoli Cookies and here are my cookies:

The only thing I do differently from the recipe is to roll them in almonds instead of pine nuts... we like them better that way. Mmmmm delicious. They make two dozen cookies, but I can never get that many, usually around 20 or so.

More snow info

I didn't venture too far off the front porch to get this measurement so I think we have a little more snow than 7 1/2 inches. The wind has started to blow the snow around and it is still snowing. Predictions are that we may get another 2-4 inches. The temperature when we got up was 16... it has warmed to 23. Chuck plowed the driveway with his tractor so we can get out if we want to. If he doesn't plow and we drive on it, it takes much longer for everything to melt. The gate was frozen shut, but that is working now. It is not unusual for us to get snow thin late in the month and all moisture is greatly appreciated. Now the spring wildflowers will come up!

We've got snow!

Most of the time, when snow is forecasted, we don't know how much, if any, we will get. 3-6 inches was forecasted for last night and we thought, ok, maybe an inch or two... but we probably have 6-8 inches of the white stuff. Sasha was out cavorting and it was up to her chest! Here is a picture of the back yard. You can see the nice dome the snow has created in the little bird bath.

And here is a picture from the front door. Rambi loves the snow too!

TIAS Tatting

TIAS means "Tat It And See". Iris Niebach has this tatting design on her blog and she is a very creative tatting artist. I started after seeing what other tatters had done and finally got mine finished the other day. It took me quite a while to do this, especially since I didn't know how to make a SCMR which stands for Self Closing Mock Ring. With the help of tatting bloggers, I was able to figure this out and now my tatting skills aren't so rusty.

I plan on getting a nice frame for this and putting it up in my quilt studio. I love the way it turned out, even though it took me several weeks to complete.

Finally Finished

Yesterday was quilting day at my house, as is all Tuesday's except for the 2nd Tuesday of the month which is guild day. Teresa, Barbara, Kathryn, Siggi and Eileen were all there. Missing was Susan, Billie and Nora. I finally finished the guild Calendar BOM for 2008 by completing November.

I also worked on Jess's wedding quilt and completed 25 more "B" arcs.

Stash Report Week 12

Stash Report for week 12:

Fabric bought this week: 0 yards
Fabric used this week: 5 yards

Fabric bought YTD: 32 yards
Fabric used YTD: 80.83 yards

Stash busted: I have used 48.83 yards more than I have bought.

This includes the fabric I used on the Rail Fence Quilt and the 16 Patch Baby Quilt. My tops are beginning to stack up and if I got them quilted, I'd really be stash busting!

Amy's Quilt

Amy got her quilt yesterday so I can finally post pictures. She was so excited! I also sent her some of my knitted booties and mitts.

And a close-up:

And Amy with her quilt in the peaceful green baby's room:)

The quilt is very similar to the purple scrap quilt I made for myself, except I didn't want to make all those flying geese and square in a square blocks so I filled in one block with 4 patches and I really like the way the quilt turned out.

Another Baby Quilt Top

I saw a quilt using scrappy rail fence blocks and thought, this might be good in my bright fabric. It wasn't... too busy. So I changed direction and made another 16 patch quilt similar to the one I made for my granddaughter, Darcy, but smaller. This is probably what I will do with the rest of the leftover fabric... and I have a lot of leftover fabric already sewn into strips.

My Goodness!

I've been blogging for almost a year! The time has gone by so fast, I just can't believe it! I wish I had put a visitor counter from the very beginning, but still, to have 2500 visitors since January 4th is really cool! I have encountered so many wonderful bloggers and have had entirely too much fun sharing my quilting with you. Thank you!

What I did today

I have been teaching this beginner class at the quilt shop for months now and my students haven't been able to make more than 2 rows of a rail fence quilt in the 4 hour class. So I revised the way the quilt is made, making the blocks bigger and the quilt about 45" x 60". I think my students will be able to get more done in the time allowed.

Stash Report Week 11

I wasn't sure I was going to use any of my stash this week since my husband decided that we needed to take advantage of free green waste week at the county transfer station. We cut down 7 juniper trees and hauled 5 loads in our 16' x 6' trailer to the transfer station. Any other trees will have to wait until the next free green waste week. All these trees were either too close to the house and posed a fire danger, or were crowding pinon trees. But he went to work yesterday and I sewed :)

Stash Report for week 11:

Fabric bought this week: 0 yards
Fabric used this week: 7 yards

Fabric bought YTD: 32 yards
Fabric used YTD: 75.83 yards

Stash busted: I have used 43.83 yards more than I have bought.

Here's where most of this week's fabric went:

This is Judy's Stash Project and Judy said if I didn't like the quilt, that was OK... make it and donate it to a charity. It's not that I don't like the quilt and I like it much better with the borders, but I'm not crazy about it. It will go to a charity once it's quilted. The important thing... I busted stash!

Stash Report Week 10

Still busting! Purple Scrap quilt is quilted so the 6 yards of backing counts. Amy's baby quilt is finished and that took 1/3 yard for the binding.

Stash Report for week 10:

Fabric bought this week: 0 yards
Fabric used this week: 6 1/3 yards

Fabric bought YTD: 32 yards
Fabric used YTD: 68.83 yards

Stash busted: I have used 36.83 yards more than I have bought.

Sewing and quilting will start slowing down with spring coming. All this week we are taking out Juniper trees that are too close to the house (high fire danger) and since the transfer station (dump) is taking green waste for free we will be making several trips and cleaning up a lot of trees on our 2.6 acres. We only remove the Junipers that crowd the Pinons... that way the Pinon trees have more room to grow.

I'm working on Jessa's wedding quilt, but it is a very slow process. It's a king sized paper pieced Wedding Star Quilt... pattern by Judy Niemeyer. That will have a HUGE yardage stash busting when I get it finished... maybe before their first anniversary? maybe... maybe not!

I've been tatting again :)

Second try at making the Quantiesque Snowflake.

I did much better with my tension and really like this snowflake! I'm sure my daughter is going to request many of these for her Christmas tree in December... better get busy!

My goodness... another award!

Zlaty has awarded me the Kreative Blogger award.

I need to list 7 things I love:
1. My husband
2. My daughter and her husband
3. My son and his family
4. Quilting
5. My friends, especially Teresa, Siggi, Kat, Eileen, Barbara, Susan, Billie and Nora
6. Knitting
7. Tatting
but above all, my Lord and Saviour!

I've been tatting :)

My blogging friend, Tatting Chic had this snowflake posted on her blog and I just fell in love with it. I am tired of knitting, so I took up my tatting shuttle last night. I am so out of practice I couldn't remember how to hold the thread! Had to go to her blog for the links to instructions. Now, that is bad... to forget how to do that! Another wonderful tatting site is: Lady ShuttleMaker

Here is the link to the instructions: Quantiesque Snowflake

Here's my snowflake:

I think my tension is way too tight and I need to get back into practice, but I am happy with how this snowflake turned out. I think I'll make another in white :)

Fabric for Stash Quilt

I have been thinking about fabrics for Judy's Stash Project . Pulled a bunch of florals and didn't realize how many floral fabrics I really had!

What do you think, Judy... too busy? Do I need more contrast on the colors? This is just the preliminary pull :) I'm open to suggestions!

Stash Report Week 9

I have the top of Amy's baby quilt all done and on the quilting machine frame. Since it is almost quilted, I am adding it in this weeks's stash report minus binding.

Fabric bought this week: 0 yards
Fabric used this week: 10 yards

Fabric bought YTD: 32 yards
Fabric used YTD: 62.5 yards

Stash busted: I have used 30.5 yards more than I have bought

I have made what I hope to be a realistic goal for my stash busting effort this year. I am going to try to bust 300 yards. At the rate I'm going, I should succeed and if I don't... no problem... will work on it more next year!